When My Thoughts Drift To You
by KNO
Summary: Drabble. Emotions in the operating room. Subtle Sakura/Sai.


_Just go with it._

**Disclaimer:** Masashi Kishimoto owns all characters and places. I make no bank.

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><p>Sakura was worried if she squeezed too hard the vein would pop. She slightly eased up the pressure in her fingertips.<p>

Across from her, Tsunade worked diligently over Sai's wracked body. Tsunade made a clucking noise in her throat, and Sakura's attention was caught.

"Are you sure you can handle this, Sakura?" asked Tsunade's voice, cool and calm and uncertain.

Sakura's eye twitched. She nodded hastily to appease her mentor.

Not pursuing her query any further, Tsunade returned to digging around in Sai's exposed forearm.

"Seems like the jutsu fried the nerves in his hand," Tsunade commented.

Sakura did not look over to see like she usually would.

This was Sai lying on this table—Sai, not some random nameless shinobi.

Without warning, Sakura felt her eyes fill with tears. She blinked hard to get rid of them. They were unsanitary in an operating room. And unwanted.

Hours before, Sai had been rushed into Konoha's hospital unconscious, and after a quick assessment, it was decided he had to undergo immediate surgery.

Something—Sakura wasn't sure what, yet—had gone wrong on his mission. Sai hadn't gone alone, but his teammates, Neji and Ino, had yet to turn up at the hospital to offer explanation.

Sakura couldn't help being a little angry with them and their priorities.

The pink haired girl turned her attention away from Tsunade's bowed, focused head and looked at Sai.

If it was possible, he looked even paler now, under the fluorescent light of the operating room. The dark table beneath him did not help his coloration either.

Against his high cheekbones, his dark eyelashes rested, like feathers waiting to be lifted off a surface by the wind.

Sakura felt condensation gather again in her eyes. She hurriedly turned her head again, but this only made it worse.

She sniffed, trying not to be too audible to keep from notifying Tsunade.

"Sakura, if you can't control yourself then leave and send Shizune in," Tsunade commented smoothly.

Sakura's tears overflowed, cascading down her cheeks behind her surgical mask.

"I'm sorry," she uttered to her teacher.

Sakura secured a small clamp on the vein and left the operating room, cleaning her hands before she went to find Shizune to take her place.

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><p>Sai was unhappy.<p>

The jutsu user who had destroyed the nerves in his hand had ruined his future as a shinobi. Furthermore, he had robbed Sai of his ability to paint.

Sai stared out at Konoha from the top of Hokage Mountain. The city was winding down for the day. Streetlights and lanterns flickered on languidly.

His arm shuddered in reaction, and Sai gritted his teeth in convulsion of pain.

"Sai?"

Sai waited until his expression was under control before turning around.

"Sakura," he greeted, slightly bemused. "The hospital doesn't need anything, do they? I've already completed my therapy for today."

Sakura shook her head, her pink hair sashaying around her face.

She looked thinner to Sai, more sallow than before.

He stared as she came over to stand next to him, surveying Konoha below.

"How are the treatments going?" Sakura queried.

Sai was noncommittal.

"I don't see the point in them. My arm will never be the same. His jutsu robbed me of my livelihood."

Sakura was embarrassed that her eyes grew misty; she hid her face from Sai.

Barely in control of her emotional voice, Sakura replied, "It's not fair that you were paralyzed like this."

Sai mulled this over for a few moments in silence.

Finally he said, "Perhaps this is punishment for me. For all of the deaths I've caused. For ROOT. For doubting Naruto, even."

Sakura reached out blindly and covered Sai's uninjured hand with her own.

Sai looked down, surprised by her touch.

"It's not your fault, Sai. You're not being punished. If Naruto were here, he would say that there was a reason this happened. The treatments will help—you can learn how to reuse your hand."

The pleading hope in her voice ignited a small flame of purpose within Sai.

He squeezed her hand tightly.

"Thank you," Sai said, more grateful than ever before that he knew a woman like Sakura Haruno.

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><p><em>Review, if you don't mind.<em>


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